About the Institute for the Study of “Race” and Social Justice

The Institute for the Study of “Race” and Social Justice is an initiative within the RWJF Center for Health Policy to address the pressing social and economic issues that affect the health and well-being of all Americans. Its mission is to promote the establishment of empirical, theoretical and methodological clarity about “race” that draws on cutting-edgethinking from multiple disciplines and diverse empirical traditions.

Led by two co-directors, Laura E. Gómez, J.D., Ph.D., (UNM School of Law, Department of American Studies) and Nancy López, Ph.D., (UNM Department of Sociology), the Institute seeks to develop ways of empirically measuring“race” and assessing racialization processes in order to develop strategies forameliorating race-based inequality. Drs. Gómez and López place “race” in quotes to underscore its nature as a socially constructed category of socialstatus in particular historical contexts, rather than as a reified categorythat is essential or fixed.